Abstract : Several studies have shown a positive correlation between belief in a just world and degree of submission. In the workplace, that means that the more one considers the environment in which he/she works is just, the less he/she will dispute his/her chief. However, differences were observed within the degree of belief in the justice and within the degree of submission, according to the status (employed/unemployed), and gender. Wishing to extend this type of study and to examine other possible differences, here we compare 60 working employees to 60 pensioned (with 30 men and 30 women in each case) who have completed a questionnaire measuring their degree of compliance-protest and their degree of belief in a just world.
It is observed that all are moderately compliant, except for pensioned and women when this compliance goes against their interests: they become protesters. It is also found, for the belief in a just world, that all participants are at the level of the theoretical average, but with a status effect: the pensioned are more believer in a just world than the working employees, especially within men. Finally, we observe that the belief in a just world is positively correlated with the compliance when the compliance is based on ideologies reasons. These results are interpreted in reference to the living conditions of each other.